The Sacred Made Real, National Gallery | reviews, news & interviews
The Sacred Made Real, National Gallery
The Sacred Made Real, National Gallery
Monday, 02 November 2009
The head of John the Baptist floats in darkness, lips blue, eyes rolled back, the severed neck so realistic that the trachea, oesophagus and paraspinal muscles can be clearly differentiated around the jutting bone. With its explicit gore and hypereal materiality, its air of heightened theatricality bordering on camp, this feels in some ways the most contemporary exhibition currently showing in London. And the irony is that at a time when we’re positively inundated with powerful exhibitions devoted to major living artists – Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Anish Kapoor, Sophie Calle – everything here is nearly 400 years old.
The head of John the Baptist floats in darkness, lips blue, eyes rolled back, the severed neck so realistic that the trachea, oesophagus and paraspinal muscles can be clearly differentiated around the jutting bone. With its explicit gore and hypereal materiality, its air of heightened theatricality bordering on camp, this feels in some ways the most contemporary exhibition currently showing in London. And the irony is that at a time when we’re positively inundated with powerful exhibitions devoted to major living artists – Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, Anish Kapoor, Sophie Calle – everything here is nearly 400 years old.
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take a subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
more
Album: Samana - Samana
Hypnotic psychedelic folk from the Welsh valleys
theartsdesk Q&A: Eddie Marsan and the American Revolution, posh boys and East End gangsters
Versatile actor on playing John Adams opposite Michael Douglas in Apple TV+’s ‘Franklin'
DVD/Blu-ray: Billy Connolly - Big Banana Feet
The comic caught on the cusp of his fame as he tours Ireland in 1975
The Great Escape Festival 2024, Brighton review - 12 hours on the musical frontline of Day Three
Checking out gigs by Being Dead, Kneecap, Pip Blom, Looking Glass Alice and more
Rebus, BBC One review - revival of Ian Rankin's Scottish 'tec hits the jackpot
Richard Rankin makes a compelling debut as the unorthodox Edinburgh cop
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - Beethoven, younger than springtime
An exuberant cobweb-clearing symphony cycle
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne review - cornucopia of visual inventiveness eclipses everything else
An operatic feast for the eyes doesn't translate into conceptual satisfaction
Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - affection and adventure
Sir Stephen Hough’s piano concerto receives its European premiere
Clinton Baptiste, Touring review - spoof clairvoyant on great form
Character has life beyond 'Phoenix Nights'
Music Reissues Weekly: Andwella - To Dream
How a cult psychedelic band laid the ground for a massive Demis Roussos hit
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - fun with abandon
Approaching the final goal of ‘Mozart, made in Manchester’
Album: Barry Adamson - Cut to Black
The coolest Mancunian returns with a lesson in style
Add comment